I know, I know.
This is ridiculous…This is crazy… And this is exactly why Jerry Jones would say such a thing. As much as Jones loves money, oil, football, sky boxes and billion dollar shrines to football and excess, he also loves notoriety.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones raised the possibility in a weekend interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Team spokesman Rich Dalrymple said Monday the owner had told him it wasn't going to happen.
The degree to which Jones meant what he said, who knows? This is Dallas and, crazier things have happened. This has been an inordinately quiet off-season by the Cowboys standards, and it certainly seems possible that Jones’ trigger finger is getting itchy.
At least from a strictly football-centric standpoint, the idea might not be so bad (am I losing it?). When Dallas coaches sat down to grade the team’s cornerbacks, Jones registered the highest grade on the team; higher than Terence Newman, and everyone else.
The numbers belie the general feeling that Jones was inconsequential as a Cowboy; not great, but not all that bad, either.
Jones registered 31 tackles, 26 solo, while missing six games due to suspension following a fight at a downtown Dallas hotel, and another with a neck injury. He forced one fumble, though he failed to record an interception.
Compare that to Terence Newman, who is probably (certainly) Dallas’ best cornerback -- when he is healthy. While missing six games due to injury, Newman recorded 37 tackles, 32 solo, and four interceptions, two of which came in a crucial game against the Giants.
Is this a mere publicity stunt or is Jerry serious? Or, with Dallas attempting to shore up the defensive backfield is it both?
Again, there’s no way to tell with Jerry Jones.
The team signed Gerald Sensabaugh, a talented though slightly troubled cornerback from Jacksonville (sound familiar?) last year, and they seem geared towards grooming second-year players Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick in the role as well.
Again, from a strictly football standpoint, as long as the development of the aforementioned players is not hindered, this could be a positive signing. Dallas has struggled with depth at the position for years now.
But this is the NFL afterall and football is only a part of the equation.
The circus has seemingly left town, at least as much as it possibly can leave in Dallas. Is it worth it to risk the curiously-satisfactory silence that has characterized Dallas’ off-season thus far for a player with a checkered past and a not-so-impressive 2008?
Maybe, maybe not; but what we think, friends, is of little consequence.
This is Jerry’s town and Jerry’s team.
And if Jerry wants Pacman back, Pacman he (and we) will get.
